Getting good leads is vital to business success. And it’s not just about finding the right people to talk to; it’s about understanding what they want from your business, how you’re going to talk to them, how you look after them during their buying journey and how you keep them loyal once they’ve turned into a customer. A lead generation service could help you with this process, talking to, cultivating and educating potential customers to help put them in a position where they’re ready to talk to you about the details
Why choose outsourced lead generation?
It’s important that you target the right leads, so it’s only natural that you want to keep control over this essential part of your sales and marketing process. But lead generation is time-consuming and, as the business owner, your time is valuable and best spent elsewhere. Once you have defined the types of customer you’re looking for and agreed a process and tools for approach, you should be able to confidently leave both lead generation and appointment setting to someone else.
Lead generation methods
The way you generate leads will depend on the type of business you run, and the average value of each sale you want to make. This will vary depending on whether you are a product-based or service-based business and what your monthly and annual sales targets are. Most experts agree that you now need to have several ways of generating leads, and that the better you understand your target customer, the more likely you are to reach them successfully. This might be through a combination of
- Telemarketing sales leads – building a GDPR-compliant database of warm enquiries or previous clients, developing a clear script for calls, together with a suitable follow-up process. Telemarketing needs confident, bright and intelligent callers who can keep prospects interested and gauge interest for the next steps.
- Email marketing campaigns – building a GDPR-compliant database for email newsletters, offers and marketing emails. Designing, writing, building, sending and analysing campaigns and adjusting accordingly to better target prospects.
- Social media and other digital marketing – defining the right channels to use for your business, and maintaining a regular content schedule across those platforms to interact with and inform potential leads. Using paid online advertising where appropriate to generate new leads.
- Direct sales via your website – using good content, targeted offers and dedicated landing pages to hook visitors, give them information to help with their buying decisions and making it easy for them to enquire or buy.
- Networking, PR and other marketing activity – raising the business profile in the right places to the right audiences, and driving them to other lead generation activities, such as website content or email marketing.
Some businesses use several different outsource options for their lead generation solutions. Whilst it’s fine to do this, it might result in your leads getting markedly different information and approaches from different sources. This in turn can make your business look confused and inconsistent, which might put potential customers off. Instead, consider outsourcing this activity to a single support company that can help you make a consistent approach no matter what channel you’re using. That’s why it might be worth investigating using a dedicated service like a virtual assistant for lead generation help and support.
What is a virtual lead generation and appointment setting assistant?
A good virtual assistant service can help you with the everyday tasks that take up too much of your time and are better handled by experienced, organised and efficient outsourcers. Virtual assistants work for your business without having to be employed – so you only pay for the time you use, and there are no other overheads to consider. At the same time, you are benefiting from years of experience that is being applied to your business by people who really know what they’re doing, and have lots of commercial experience to share.
A good virtual assistant team can work on B2C or B2B lead generation services, covering various ways of reaching customers and working closely with you to make sure that you are reaching the right prospects with the right messages. From telemarketing lead generation support to social media campaign planning and updates, this can be a great way to use support lead generation services without compromising on quality.
To find out more about how our virtual lead generation service can free up your time and generate the right kind of leads for your business, feel free to call us on 0800 994 9016 or use our contact form in the menu above.